The Hays County Commissioners Court voted on May 19 to address a letter to the San Marcos City Council in support of continued funding of the Greater San Marcos Partnership by the council.

Hays County Pct. 3 Commissioner Will Conley, the Greater San Marcos Partnership board chairman, was joined by Pct. 2 Commissioner Mark Jones and Pct. 4 Commissioner Ray Whisenant in approving the letter. County Judge Bert Cobb and Pct. 1 Commissioner Debbie Gonzales Ingalsbe were absent on Tuesday due to family medical issues.

Anticipating signatures from the full court, the letter reads:

In 2009, in the middle of a recession, our community led by the City of San Marcos committed to invest $150,000 to evaluate our economic strengths and weakness in the Greater San Marcos area. This plan also reviewed global, national, and regional trends in economic development so that we could understand the best way for our community to compete in this highly competitive world.

After extensive public outreach and research we developed a plan to implement a new era of economic development strategies for our community. The Greater San Marcos Partnership (the “Partnership”) was formed to carry out this mission. The founding members of this organization were the City of San Marcos, Hays County, Caldwell County, Texas State University, Economic Development San Marcos, the San Marcos Chamber of Commerce, Central Texas Medical Center, Gary Job Corps, San Marcos CISD, the Lockhart Economic Development Council, the Luling Economic Development Council and Prime Outlets in San Marcos. Dr. Perry Moore, the Texas State University Provost at the time, was chosen to chair the organization and lead us through plan implementation.

The plan called for major investments from both the public and private sectors in our community as well as thousands of hours of volunteer time over the next five years. A primary focus was given to the City of San Marcos followed closely by Texas State University, Hays County and Caldwell County. As we matured and developed, we learned how to get better at our trade. We changed our staff half way through the plan and brought on our current President, Adrianna Cruz. Our organization soon became a first class professional economic development organization and by most measures we successfully accomplished the goals of our first five year plan including the creation of over 1400 jobs and over 44 million dollars of investment in our community.

After extensive public outreach and research, we recently completed a new five year strategy. Once again, the greater San Marcos community is the focus of the plan. Hays County believes this new plan will take us into the future and provide opportunities for all of our citizens. We intend to continue to support the Partnership’s efforts, and hope to increase our investment in order to provide the necessary resources the new plan requires. However, this plan will not be successful without the enthusiastic, un-wavering support and commitment from the City of San Marcos.

Economic development, done properly, takes time. Relationships must be developed and knowledge must be distributed far and wide about our wonderful community. Volunteers from our community are again willing to invest thousands of hours of time. The Partnership’s professional staff is respected here at home and abroad and is prepared to successfully implement the plan. We have been a successful team since the beginning and our hard work has provided this moment of opportunity. Together, we can help create an environment that gives our citizens the best opportunity to achieve the American dream.

We strongly encourage our friends, colleagues and partners at the city of San Marcos to stay the course, to believe in our partnership and its strategy, and to be dedicated to our goal. We believe a collective effort will help our community thrive and be evermore successful in the future.

2 thoughts on “Hays County commissioners back GSMP funding in letter to San Marcos council”

There may well be a need for a coordinated effort like the GSMP, but I can see why it would be a hard sell to any other community other than S.M. to equally participate in a program with S.M. in the name. Ultimately, I expect city and county funds are being funneled to an unelected and unaccountable bureaucracy.